[MR] suggestion for helping daytrip fees

[Cian of Storvik]

It possibly is wrong to look at this in a corporate sense, but even though the SCA is a non-for-profit organization, it still takes money to run it. When you look at company gross profits, when companies try to eliminate cost by cutting corners (I'm not talking about obvious frivolous expenditures, but by going to cheaper materials, less dependable suppliers) to try to meet the cost expectations of customers or to try to gain a larger customer base, you more often fail to gain the confidence of the new customers for the minimal price difference. And you actually start to lose dedicated clients due to the reduction in quality or service.

There's actually an economic axiom for this paradox. which is something like; if you have 100 customers that expect a certain degree of quality/service/price, and then you reduce prices by 5% in an attempt to aquire 10% more customers, but in the process reduce quality and service equally by 5% then you will wind up losing more customers then you gain. The original 100 had no problem paying the existing price, in fact some of them may have been willing to pay even more for the existing service and quality of product, but to these dedicated customers even a 1% drop in service and/or quality is not worth even 10% decrease in price and will go elsewhere that their quality service needs can be met even if they have to pay more. And then you may still may not be meeting the "I can't pass up this deal" expectations of the 10 people you are trying to win from competitors. 
 
The reality is that SCA events cannot be compared to TV or movie entertainment. I would more realistically compare it to a live-action sport event (Which our combat is like) or a day at a renfest or amusment park. When you compare the dollar per hour of entertainment value, you are actually very much on par with a reduced price movie ticket. (The prices in your area, and your attendance at these places may vary, but this is how it boils down for me:)
 
$9 for a 2 hr. movie = $4.50/hr.
$56 at Hershey Park for 8 hrs = $7.00/hr.
$45 for a 5 hr concert = $9/hr.
$80 at Busch Gardens for 8 hrs = $10.00/hr.
A $15 SCA event for 8 hours = $1.88/hr
 
The reality is if $3 is going to keep someone from going to an event because they can't afford it, then odds are they can't afford the other $8 either and still are unlikely to go. The couple of people where $3 is a determing factor of "I can afford it" or "I can't afford to go", then they probably have more serious uses for the whole of the fee and be much happier going to Red Box and renting a movie for a dollar.
 
In the event you choose a cheaper site with short comings, you may find the return on your money is lessened even greater than you expected. Now that you have chosen a cheaper and less than optimal site for an event to try to lure X% (let's say you have to lose some of the martial activities or camping due to usable space or unsatisfactory space or site restrictions) what does that do for the people who would otherwise like to attend but now see no reason to? You may have lost their fees.
 
That's my thinking on it anyhow,
-Cian of Storvik (pronounced Key-an)
(Not to be confused with the handsome and dashing Sir Cian)